1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an intermediate product carrying apparatus and an intermediate product carrying method, for taking in a carrier which is carried between a plurality of process systems and which stores a plurality of intermediate products, and changing the sequence or combination of intermediate products in the carrier.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses for manufacturing semiconductor wafers (hereinafter referred to as ‘wafers’) as intermediate products include a variety of wafer manufacturing apparatuses, such as lithography apparatuses, film forming apparatuses, etching apparatuses, cleaning apparatuses, inspection apparatuses, etc.
Between process systems from a group of a kind of semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses to a group of other kinds of semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses, the wafers are carried in a state where the wafers are stored in storage members called wafer carriers. The wafers are removed from a carrier and carried to an arbitrary process system, and then the wafers are subjected to a predetermined process in the process system.
Some of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses having such a plurality of processes are arranged in a line along a sequential carrying path (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-145022 (see page 1 and FIG. 1)).
On the other hand, because of the requirement for limited production of a wide variety of wafers, a so-called single wafer carrying method of carrying wafers on a conveyer, one by one, in place of carrying the wafers using carriers (also referred to as wafer cassettes) has been disclosed. This single wafer carrying method is intended to cope with the limited production of a variety of wafers (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-334917 (see page 1 and FIG. 1)). It is desired that such a single wafer carrying method be used for intra-process wafer carrying.
When it is intended to transfer wafers in a carrier directly from the carrier carried in inter-process carrying, as described above, to the single wafer carrying conveyer, the following problems are caused.
In the carrier carried in inter-process carrying from a previous process system, a plurality of wafers to be processed by different manufacturing apparatuses in the desired process system are mixed and stored.
The wafers may not be directly transferred into the single wafer carrying conveyer, depending upon situations of the manufacturing apparatuses in the process system.
When wafers in the carrier carried in inter-process carrying are transferred into the single wafer carrying conveyer in the order of arrival, a great deal of setup time may be required, thereby reducing production efficiency of the apparatuses.
Therefore, the present invention is contrived to solve the above problems, and it is thus an object of the present invention to provide an intermediate product carrying apparatus and an intermediate product carrying method, in which intermediate products stored in a carrier carried between process systems can actively be transferred in accordance with the order or combination obtained by considering efficiencies when intermediate products are taken into the desired process system, and can then be carried to the desired manufacturing apparatus.